Proposed guest worker program apparently not causing spike in number of illegal immigrants.

LUKE TURF

  AGUA PRIETA, Son. - President Bush's recent announcement that he supports a limited guest worker program had no bearing on Manuel Garcia's plan to sneak into
the United States.

  Garcia took the chance Monday night and was caught yesterday by Border Patrol agents.

  While boarding a Border Patrol bus for the trip back to his home state of Veracruz with four friends, Garcia said he was tired, dirty and would never try to enter illegally again.

  "I thought I'd have opportunity there," the 22-year-old said.

  Ranch Rescue president Jack Foote spends his days and nights trying to keep illegal immigrants off land in the United States along the border.

  Foote said illegal immigrant trespassing on property owned by a Ranch Rescue member in Cochise County is soaring since Bush's announcement.

  "Dear God, it's like the floodgates opened," Foote said in an office at Camp Thunderbird, the organization's base in Arizona, about 100 yards from the border. "Our
  next-door neighbor is the biggest Border Patrol station; what are they doing?"

  A lot, according to Border Patrol spokesman Andy Adame.

  So far this year, the Border Patrol has caught 28,546 suspected illegal immigrants in the Tucson sector, which covers all of the state except a small portion near Yuma.
  That's about a 25 percent increase over the same period in 2003.

  Adame said the surge in apprehensions has more to do with more Border Patrol manpower than more people coming over the border.

  Like Adame, Jesus Pacheco hasn't heard a buzz among immigrants about coming here because Bush supports a guest worker program.

  Pacheco spent four of his 10 years in the United States living illegally and two years in prison for smuggling immigrants. Now he drives a cab, and he often gives rides
  to people planning to cross illegally.

  "They're going to go with or without amnesty," Pacheco said. "They don't even know (what Bush is saying)."